Waterford landowners urged to cut back overgrown hedges that ‘endanger road users’

Landowners in County Waterford have been urged to cut back hedges that “endanger road users”.

Fine Gael councillor Niamh O’Donovan made the remarks at the July plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.

Cllr O’Donovan said: “Look it, the legislation is there and I’ll just read it out for confirmation, if you don’t mind. Hedge cutting is prohibited between March 1 and August 31.

“However, where there is a roadside hedge that presents a genuine road safety hazard, such as that of visibility at a junction approaching onto a public road, the Wildlife Act provides public safety extension and Section 70 of the Roads Act faces a legal responsibility on landowners to ensure roadside vegetation does not endanger road users.

“I think the council have been doing a great job on that at a lot of the junctions, a lot of the main roads but I would like to just highlight here and get confirmation of that.

READ NEXT: Frustration in Waterford over ‘administration charge’ being added to parking fees

“Landowners for the property do have permission to look at if the hedge needs to be cut to allow safe passage for vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists or agricultural machinery.”

In response, Director of Services Gabriel Hynes emphasised that this rule only applies where there is a genuine road safety concern.

Mr Hynes said: “In relation to hedge cutting, I want to be very clear about this.

“Cutting from September 1, you can cut through to February 28 but from March 1 until September 1, under the Wildlife Act, you can’t cut.

“Now there are exceptions in emergency situations as you said where you have sightlines being obstructed at junctions in particular and that’s for road safety only.

“It doesn’t allow people to continuously cut during the summer months along verges.”

He went on to say that if people cut their hedges during the cutting season, there wouldn’t be an issue now.

“It’s only in exceptional cases and what I will say is if landlords carry out works during the winter period, the amount of growth coming out onto the public road would be a lot less and they wouldn’t have the same issue.”